Album Review: We Are Nobody by The Chap

Upon We Are Nobody's release, the Chap claimed it was the group's first entirely irony-free album -- something that was hard to believe, given the band's reputation as dyed-in-the-wool mischief makers. However, the opening track "Rhythm King" confirms that for this album, the British/German outfit is as straightforward as it can possibly be, crafting pop songs with all the right parts in all the right places. While We Are Nobody finds the Chap in a considerably less whimsical mood than usual, the group's clever observations and skeptical, skewed outlook on life and music are still here, and being a little less silly allows them to focus on other aspects of their sound.

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Last year, North London quintet the Chap released a greatest-hits album-- with the none-too-modest title of We Are the Best-- despite the fact that they had been active for only eight years, released but four albums, and have come nowhere close to disturbing the Top 40 charts. For a band that's never met a meta-pop gesture it didn't relish, the premature best-of felt like the Chap's most extravagantly executed ruse yet, the ultimate comment on self-congratulatory celebrity culture and instant, internet-abbetted historicization. Naturally, the Chap can't resist following one joke with another: After the faux-canonization of We Are the Best, they come crashing back down to the reality of being an unsung indie band-- albeit one admired by Britian's most famous science writer-- with We Are Nobody.

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